1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container which is useful for shipping and storing hazardous liquids and other hazardous materials.
2. Background Information
Containers currently employed for transporting and storing hazardous liquids often have a cushioned pocket for each of one or more vessels that may be breakable, e.g., glass bottles. The container of coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,684 (Bernardin et al.) has a housing containing a resilient energy-absorbent cushion of aqueous fluid sorbent material that is formed with a plurality of pockets. Each pocket can receive a vial of hazardous or biological material. In the illustrated containers, the cushions may be sheets of nonwoven, fibrous polyolefinic (e.g., polypropylene) material such as disclosed in coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,531 (Hauser) and/or such as the universal sorbent sold under the trademark POWERSORB by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. One or more of the sheets are formed with openings for receiving the vials, and additional sheets that have no such openings cover those openings to complete the cushion which may have a percentage void volume available for sorbing aqueous fluid of between approximately 50 and 95 percent (which corresponds to a solidity between approximately 50 and 5 percent).
The container of U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,547 (Taylor) has tubular cavities for a number of test tubes and is formed with a central recess through which any leaking liquid should flow and an absorbent material filling that recess, the purpose of which is to absorb leaking liquid before it can escape from the container. Another multi-pocket design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,994 (Brown). Some such containers have a single pocket that may contain sorptive material to prevent any leaking liquid from escaping from the container. See U.S. Pats. No. 3,999,653 (Haigh et al.); 4,560,069 (Simon); 4,573,578 (Greminger et al.); and 4,756,937 (Mentzer). The material of which the Mentzer container is made entraps "an antidote" with which leaking liquid can react to produce a gel. A large number of other containers are known that have one or more cushioned pockets for transporting liquid-filled vessels.